1. Field
The present invention relates to pool safety valves that bleed air into the pool""s drain line to relieve excessively high vacuum levels, causing the pool""s pump to lose prime and more particularly to surge suppressors used to prevent the improper activation of such valves caused by high vacuum transients caused by the activation of the drain line pump.
2. Prior Art
There have been numerous cases of serious injuries and deaths caused by high vacuum levels at a pool""s drain port which holds an individual to the drain port and in some cases causes disembowelment. When such an incident occurs, the vacuum level in the drain line leading from the drain port to the pool""s pump rises sharply.
Various safety valves have been developed in which the high vacuum level occurring during such incidents is sensed and used to trip the valve and allow air to bleed into the drain line, causing the pump to lose prime. Although such valves function to some degree, they generally suffer from premature activation caused by the turning on of the pool""s drain line pump. When this pump is turned on initially, it produces a high vacuum surge which causes the safety valve to be tripped even though no one is trapped at the drain port of the pool. This phenomenon prevents a pool drain line pump from being effective because the water in the pool is not properly circulated, filtered or cleaned.
A surge suppressor is needed to prevent transient vacuum from activating the safety valve resulting in the loss of pump effectiveness; however, for the surge suppressor to be useful, it must allow the safety valve to perform its function when the vacuum level in the drain line is not transient but persists indicating a possible emergency caused by an individual trapped at the pool""s drain port.